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Sudeki - First Look Preview
Chris Leyton
00/12/0000
Final Fantasy meets Zelda in the first truly epic Xbox RPG...
Billed as the first Xbox epic RPG, Sudeki certainly surprised a packed audience at the recent X?02 event. Billed as ?Final Fantasy in Real-Time? TVG had the opportunity to take an extensive look at the UK developed title and chat with the lead developer, Tuomas Pirinen.
Perhaps the most surprising point in the presentation came from the fact that despite having rich character designs, epic storylines and group building most commonly attributed to Japanese RPG?s, Sudeki is in fact a UK developed title at Climax Solent. In development for the last two years both Microsoft and Climax have kept very quiet on this title, having sat down with it for a short while you can understand why. With over a year left in development, we were told that there?s still a lot of work to be done on the already amazing visuals, whilst the final game is expected to contain around 40hrs of actual gameplay, making this one of the most eagerly awaited titles on our Xbox wish list.
Climax want to keep specific storyline details a closely guarded secret this early in the development process, however we managed to uncover a few details. The heroes that you control are servants of the powerful Bright Empire, the Kingdom of Light. Sent on to a mission to collect mystical crystals that would ensure victory over Kuria, the Kingdom of Darkness. It?s only as the story progresses that you realise everything is not so straightforward, that their own kingdom and its ruler are not quite as benevolent as they once believed. So they must choose between loyalty to their own ruler and the truth.
As with most RPG?s from the land of the rising sun, the adventure allows you to take a group of four throughout the game. The Press Release issued alongside the unveiling claims that there are only four players to choose from, however we know for a fact that the final number is 13 (including the final boss), although most of these have yet to be announced as their details are closely tied in with the story. Those currently announced include a sultry wizardress, a soaring gunslinger reminiscent of Clint Eastwood, a powerful swordsman and a dark huntress capable of manipulating her appearance. We also know that a ninja styled character and a female character with the ability to fly are also available. Successfully managing the group is the key to opening up new and hidden areas, for example only certain characters can reach the higher areas.
We were amazed at how charismatic each of the main characters already are at this early stage, full facial animation has already been implemented which brings a sense of life to each one whilst the self-shadowing is notable. Climax are using an extremely impressive lip-synching package, that allows them to enter what they say and the package will then work out the correct lip movements, at this stage it?s looking like the best we?ve ever seen; however we?re assured that it will look even better in the final product.
Differentiating it from Japanese RPG?s is the inclusion of real-time combat, Sudeki merges intense action most commonly attributed to a hack ?n? slash with the spell-casting and team-based strategy of a traditional Japanese RPG. The end result is in our eyes the next step in RPG gaming, a perfect amalgamation of Zelda and Final Fantasy, whilst it?s own unique designs help to make it truly stand out from the crowd on its own merits. Combat involves two different types of attack; hard and weak, and like an action title mixing these up results in various different combo?s and special moves. Each time you meet a new enemy you?re treated to a cut-scene that uses the in-game engine to introduce it, fortunately this doesn?t distract from the game and serves as a nice break in between the hectic action. Whilst you?re controlling one character, your other members are controlled via an advanced AI script that gives you complete command of what they should be doing, i.e. attacking, retreating, healing others, etc? The combat is spiced up with the inclusion of a variety of different effects including bullet-time styled slowdown and various camera pans, the end result is a high interaction game that manages to rival the wonderfully cinematic nature of Final Fantasy?s turn based combat.
As with Final Fantasy you?re going to be selecting between various different menus?s to choose items and various other things. Unlike the FF series the action doesn?t pause during these moments, rather it slows down to something like an 1/8 of the original speed, so you can see the enemies moving slowly around you, whilst you?re making your tactical decisions; it just look very, very cool?
When the game was first conceived Climax ambition was to produce the same wonderful magical effects as seen in the Final Fantasy series, but were unsure as to whether they?d be able to produce them in real-time. Well we?ve seen a fair selection of them and can safely say that they?ve done the job. The magical system works in a similar way to the summon spells in Final Fantasy, each player character has spiritual link with a spirit demon from an ethereal plane that exists within the Sudeki world. By linking their soul-spirits the characters can summon these demons to unleash huge attacks on the enemies often obliterating everything in their path. Each characters spirit demon can perform two attacks, one offensive, and one defensive. When two or more characters link together, the player can choose to link the spirit demon?s causing each spirit demon to appear one after the other causing massive devastating effect even to the largest bosses. The use of spirit strikes is restricted by the charging of the spirit strike bar. It charges when the player does well in combat by pulling of the combination move?s well. So the better the player is, the more they can use their spirit strikes. The spirit strike bar does increase when the player characters are injured but much slower so beginners will still be able to unleash the spirit strikes in the game.
As you progress through the adventure you characters will level-up and gain experience points, which can be used to enhance your character?s overally abilities. A nice touch is that the choice of what you do to each character is completely up to you, so if you?d like to make the wizardress more powerful in the sheer brute area then you can. We?ve been told that the game structure contains a strong storyline that pushes the gamer through the adventure, however you?re completely free to go wherever you want to, in a structure that sounds similar to Zelda.
Despite the fact that it?s only been through it?s first pass the visuals look nothing short of remarkable, character models are amazing and the various environments we?ve seen are equally as impressive. We?ve encountered a huge spider boss that will send shivers down the spines of those who fear the eight-legged beasts, however it?s during the intense combat sections when Sudeki most impresses. We?ve seen fights that entail around 15-20 different enemy characters on-screen without any signs of slowdown, combine this with the matrix styled special fx and the wonderful magical effects and you?ve easily got the best looking RPG around at the moment. There?s even neat touches such as a true wind system that powers the various windmills and blows the leaves correctly, whilst the dynamic lights particular in the dungeons sections we?ve seen so far really help to set the tone.
Unbelievably the visuals are set for further improvements, we were told that there?s still room for adding lots of polygons and the implementation of bump-mapping and improvements to the already awesome lighting and particle effects.
